Namutebi sets career bar high

KAMPALA.

At 12 years, Kirabo Namutebi is turning heads as one of the most talented swimmers in Uganda – a huge but problematic endorsement for her age.

Few Ugandan swimmers hang on beyond their 18th birthday, which is usually the time athletes start to realize their potential.

But the lanky Namutebi is convinced she is one of the few that is in this for the long haul. For her; “swimming is life.”
This interview is conducted just a few days after the February 25-26 Kenya National Age Group Open and Relay Long Course Championships held at Kasarani Stadium, Nairobi.

A time she is actually supposed to be spending on holiday after a grueling few months but she prefers to hang around younger clubmates training at Hill Preparatory School, Naguru.

In December at the Cana Zone III Championships in Rwanda she won five gold, three silvers and one bronze medal but 2016 had also involved other notable performances in the region; the 11 gold medals at the Kenya National Age Group Swimming Championship and the seven in the Kenya Junior Championship come to mind. Two months ago, she won Uganda’s five medals at the Cana Zone IV Championships in Angola.

A fortnight later in Kasarani, Namutebi showed no signs of slowing down as she managed to beat her Angola times to win medals in the 50m backstroke, 200m, 100m and 50m breaststroke events.

“When I was young, I never won medals,” Namutebi, who started going to swimming pools at six months old to keep the company of her brother Tendo Mukalazi, reveals.

She started swimming at three years under the guidance of current Uganda Swimming Federation (USF) vice president Peter Mugisha, before Tonnie Kasujja and Muzafaru Muwanguzi ‘adopted’ her at Dolphins Swim Club. “But I always maintained the motivation to win medals and since I started getting them at seven, I have never looked back,” she adds.

Family support
Namutebi is the daughter of Uganda Volleyball Federation (UVF) president Hadija Namanda, and plays lots of other sports like badminton and volleyball.

“For me, Kirabo is a blessing, very disciplined, competitive and has a long future ahead which she should take one step at a time. With humility and God’s guidance she will make it and I will continue to support my children on their sporting journey,” Namanda says.

It is easy to see how her influence as a sports coach, umpire and administrator has rubbed off on her children.

“My first inspiration is mum who invests a lot of money to have us in the pool and my brother whom I always learn from everyday,” the grade seven student at British School of Kampala says.

Namutebi hopes to scale the heights even further. Her current best time in the 50m breaststroke, her best event, is 36:86 while for 50m freestyle she clocks 29:00. For perspective, that breaststroke time, according to coach Muwanguzi, is over two seconds lower than what two time Olympian Jamila Lunkuse, 20, was making at 12 years and betters the 40:48 Anthea Mudanye set at the World Shortcourse Championships in Canada last December.
Coach Kasujja, insists this is a journey Namutebi cannot embark on alone.

“You have to admire her competition spirit and the fact that she never lets the pressure get to her.

Hungry for more
“She is training at least six times a week, which is a minimum requirement for the intensity of her programme. Generally the odds are in her favour but she needs peers that are equally competitive. “She also needs to know the world has better swimmers and understand what is at stake,” Kasujja opines.

Not that these thoughts are lost on Namutebi, who admires former teammate Gloria Muzito now based in Sweden and has built a regional rivalry with Tanzania’s Sanford Natalie.

“Competing with Sanford is always a real fight. I do not want to swim comfortably but when I see someone I believe I can beat, I want to leave them by a gap,” she says.

This weekend she has more to leave by a distance as Dolphins host their inaugural Junior Swimming Championships.

NAMUTEBI’S SHORT PROFILE
Name: Kirabo Namutebi

Age: 12
Parents: Mpuuja Mutebi and Hadija Namanda
School: British School of Kampala
Club: Dolphins
Biggest competitions: Cana Zone III , Cana Zone IV
Targets: Africa Junior, All Africa Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships, Olympics
Role Models: USA’s Kate Ledecky & Michael Phelps
Best Meal: Pizza (because it has cheese)
Favourite Pastime: Movies and trying out other sports like badminton and volleyball.